Nansens Fram-ekspedisjon (1893 - 1896)

Nansen's Fram expedition of 1893–1896 was an attempt by the Norwegian explorer Fridtjof Nansen to reach the geographical North Pole by harnessing the natural east–west current of the Arctic Ocean. In the face of much discouragement from other polar explorers, Nansen took his ship Fram to the New Siberian Islands in the eastern Arctic Ocean, froze her into the pack ice, and waited for the drift to carry her towards the pole. Impatient with the slow speed and erratic character of the drift, after 18 months Nansen and a chosen companion, Hjalmar Johansen, left the ship with a team of Samoyed dogs and sledges and made for the pole. They did not reach it, but they achieved a record Farthest North latitude of 86°13.6′N before a long retreat over ice and water to reach safety in Franz Josef Land. Meanwhile, Fram continued to drift westward, finally emerging in the North Atlantic Ocean.

The idea for the expedition had arisen after items from the American vessel Jeannette, which had sunk off the north coast of Siberia in 1881, were discovered three years later off the south-west coast of Greenland. The wreckage had obviously been carried across the polar ocean, perhaps across the pole itself. Based on this and other debris recovered from the Greenland coast, the meteorologist Henrik Mohn developed a theory of transpolar drift, which led Nansen to believe that a specially designed ship could be frozen in the pack ice and follow the same track as Jeannette wreckage, thus reaching the vicinity of the pole.

Nansen supervised the construction of a vessel with a rounded hull and other features designed to withstand prolonged pressure from ice. The ship was rarely threatened during her long imprisonment, and emerged unscathed after three years. The scientific observations carried out during this period contributed significantly to the new discipline of oceanography, which subsequently became the main focus of Nansen's scientific work. Fram's drift and Nansen's sledge journey proved conclusively that there were no significant land masses between the Eurasian continents and the North Pole, and confirmed the general character of the north polar region as a deep, ice-covered sea. Although Nansen retired from exploration after this expedition, the methods of travel and survival he developed with Johansen influenced all the polar expeditions, north and south, which followed in the subsequent three decades.

Framin retkikunta Jäämerelle oli norjalaisen Fridtjof Nansenin yritys purjehtia jäitä kestävällä erikoisrakenteisella Fram-laivalla pohjoisnavalle. Retkikunta lähti liikkeelle 24. kesäkuuta 1893, ja sen tarkoituksena oli purjehtia Framilla kiinni jäihin ja kulkeutua pohjoisnavalle jäiden kuljettamana. Parissa vuodessa selvisi, että yritys kestäisi liian kauan ja jäät saattaisivat viedä aluksen sivuun pohjoisnavasta. Nansen ja Hjalmar Johansen lähtivät 14. maaliskuuta 1895 reillä kohti pohjoisnapaa. Matka oli kuitenkin vaikea, eivätkä he päässeet pohjoisnavalle. Paluumatkalla he rakensivat talvimajan Frans Joosefin maahan. Keväällä he lähtivät etelään ja törmäsivät 17. kesäkuuta 1896 Frederick George Jacksonin johtamaan brittiretkikuntaan, jonka avulla he pääsivät takaisin Norjaan. Nansen ja Johansen olivat Norjassa elokuussa ja jäistä vapautunut Fram vain viisi päivää myöhemmin.